I know we’re heading full blast into ski season and Christmas is drawing ever closer, but I wanted to revisit a couple of softball items for Owen Sound & area.
Last week, Softball Canada denied the Owen Sound Brick Brothers Volkswagen Selects in their application to host the 2011 Canadian Junior Men’s Fastball Championship Tournament.
Owen Sound hosted the event in 2008 & while that event was successful, they were even more successful last August when they hosted it again.
Sensing they were on a roll, Owen Sound bid for 2010 and 2011 and in both cases, they were rebuffed in what was a curious sequence.
Not that long ago, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, in Canada aside from Owen Sound wanted this event.
Now seemingly it’s much in demand.
Softball Canada, in another curious twist, encouraged the Fastball Association to bid for the 2011 Men’s Championship Tournament.
Me, I’d say ‘ take a hike ‘. But to the Selects credit it looks like they will apply, so conceivably it will be the Men’s and not the Junior Men’s here in 18 months.
Finally, the Bluewater Fastball League held their wrap up meeting last month and local promoter Brett Miller independently proposed a series of changes, most notably to the playoff format which would see a return to series play as opposed to the annual Championship tournament that Chepstow successfully now conducts.
By his own admission, Miller says his proposals haven’t been greeted with open arms, but it remains another fastball scenario worth watching over the next 6 months and the return of fastball in our region.
I’m Fred Wallace